Abstract

This paper provides two summaries of interviews conducted with a school principal and a parent of a student attending the school. The interviews were designed to obtain data on how the two interviewees viewed their respective interests and needs. The principal saw the school’s interests and needs as focusing on diversity, ethnicity and community support. The parent saw the needs of the students and parents as being underrepresented in the school. The parent wished the school would invite more community leaders into the school as a practical example of how students should want to live and give back to the community. The paper concludes with an analysis of the interviews and suggestions for how the school could address its truancy issues.

Summary of Interview—Principal, Interests and Needs

When I interviewed the principal of my school about the interests and needs of the school, the principal responded with great consideration and thoughtfulness. I asked how often needs assessments are conducted by the school and the principal responded that theses assessments are important and thus conducted every quarter using surveys as well as quality control meetings (Principal, personal communication, Jan. 25, 2018). The school uses a data manager to analyze the data and then presents the findings to the school, which are then used to help teachers make adjustments to curriculum where needed. Data is communicated via software that provides teachers and administrators with access to a “dashboard” where targeted areas (interests and needs) are identified and described by the data presented by the data manager.

The principal... The principal wants students to feel comfortable so that they can “fully maximize potential” (Principal, personal communication, Jan. 25, 2018). The principal wants to promote social justice at the school and have teachers there who have the same ethnicity as the students. Community is also important because teachers have to be able to understand the community from which the students hail in order to fully support and educate them.
As for truancy, it is a serious problem at the school and is nearly 4 times higher than the state’s truancy rate. The principal wants to incentivize students to come to school but also needs to make it clear that there are consequences for skipping school. To reduce truancy, teachers are expected to contact parents when they begin to notice trends so that parents and teachers can work together to make the community stronger.

Summary of Interview—Community, Interests and Needs

When I interviewed the parent, the parent expressed positive feelings towards the school, stating that the “school really wants to see my child grow and eventually go to college and be successful” (Parent, personal communication, Jan. 26, 2018). The parent felt, however, that the school could benefit from stronger disciplinary policies as well as from having a better understanding of students’ home life. The parent would also like to see the school supporting community-engagement on the part of students. Schools should be directing students to better their own communities. The school could reduce its truancy issue…